Plain Black Tea

Blog Archive

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The summer sun in Brisbane wakes up at 4:30 in the morning. Apart from being a ridiculously early time to rise and inspite of the thick curtains, it still manages to wake me up on most days. Well thankfully today is the last day of Summer, something about an equinox today which means it's officially autumn and winter is not far away. Yay! That's one whole year of summer ending for me. Now what I was going to say is that in my half sleepy mind this morning I was thinking of all the things I could be doing with my time and writing was one of them. This is pretty much how my thoughts rambled on early this morning.

I wish I could write

If I could write then I wouldn't watch so much TV

I wish I could write

Then I’d post stuff on my blog everyday and have loads and
loads of followers

I wish I could write

Then probably my famous blog will get a book deal and then
maybe a movie

I wish I could write

Then I'd be able to voice my thoughts and say everything I
wanted to say

I wish I could write

Then I'd write poetry and stories and philosophical essays
in 140 characters or less

I wish I could write

Then I could string two ideas and make something meaningful

I wish I could write

Then I wouldn't have so many unfinished stories wilting away
on my computer

I wish I could write

Then I'd write a one single successful novel and live my
life as a mysterious recluse

I wish I could write

Then I'd make gargoyles the next most popular thing… I mean
we've had enough of wizards and vampires

I wish I could write

I'll write this hugely controversial novel and get banned
from my own country… or maybe not….

I wish I could write

Then I wouldn't have to worry about punctuation and spelling
so much

I wish I could write

Then I could justify the idea of spending lots of money to
get a degree in writing… maybe

Sunday, September 29, 2013

A three nights and two day train journey will take you to
the furtherest part of India you would like to go. Since my brother Jonty decided
to move to a tiny little town called Dhupguri (situated in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, about 75 km from Siliguri) it was inevitable we make a trip.

After an overnight journey from Miraj to Mumbai, we boarded
the Guwahati Express at Kalyan Junction the next morning.Day one took us through much of Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh. Thanks to the great monsoon this year, the land looked green and
absolutely beautiful. Since there were no other passengers in our cubicle, we
could stretch out our legs, cozy up in our blankets (the Air Con was super
cold), drink lots of tea and watch the scenery go by.

Day Two brought us to Uttar Pradesh, Mughal Sarai. My mother
has fond memories of this station as my family lived in Varanasi for a while and
my brother Jonty was born there. UP looks like the quintessential India you
often seen in pictures; tiny little villages, green fields all around and not
very developed.

We then entered Bihar and traveled through the entire breath
of Bihar; green paddy fields, overflowing rivers that looked like the sea,
little villages, not many cities, but more about our Bihari adventures later.

Day three: We arrived in Dhupguri at 7am; the train was two
hours late, not bad all things considered. My lifelong perception of Miraj as a
dusty little town has drastically changed after visiting Dhupguri, West Bengal. I can’t help but wonder why this strategic
corner of India is so neglected. I say
strategic because, as anyone who has traveled to the North East knows that this
little district of Jalpaiguri, is the gateway to the North-East of India. It is
this tiny strip of land squashed in between Bhutan and Bangladesh that leads to
the rest of North East India.

There is not much to say about Dhupguri as a town, it is
underdeveloped and in great need of a good school and hospital, but more
importantly a road to get to Siliguri. As far as I know, there is no NH 31D and
SH 12A. They say such a road exists; it must exist because it says so, but
since I was unable to see any road, I say there is no road. A person must
therefore learn the subtle art of flying to get from one place to the other (*see
hitchhikers guide to the galaxy for more on how to fly) or else have every bone
in their body and nut and bolt in their car rattled and shaken and tossed about
like a rag doll until you reach your destination covered in dust and grime. I
think there must be little bits of me scattered about across Jalpaiguri, so
forgive me if I have rambled on.

The only remarkable thing about Jalpaiguri, apart from its
strategic location, super flat landscape, endless paddy fields, enormous
rivers, tin houses on stilts, endless tea gardens and millions of fireflies, is
that on extremely clear mornings (and mornings are an hour earlier than the
rest of India) one can get a clear view of the KanchanJunga Himalayan mountain
range. The snowy white peaks in the
distance at first may look like white clouds and the dark hills of Darjeeling and Bhutan look like large dark clouds, but slowly the longer
you look, you begin to realize
that they are in fact mountains… rather amazing!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

I feel like everyone’s out with an agenda on the internet. It’s
like everyone I know (including me) is out to promote, their blog their photography, their ideology, their cooking, whatever. Is it a good or bad thing? I don’t know, but in this overcrowded consumerist, product based age, their own ‘brand identity’
is what people are trying to promote. Every individual seems to want to become
a brand. Not too long ago before social networking became a necessity, it was
only public figures, the rich and famous, politicians, celebrities and newspersons
that got to voice their opinions to the masses. Today we communicate almost at
the speed of thought. I think, I type, I hit post and voila a hundred people
read my thoughts... It may not reach thousands or millions (yet) but it’s more
than the number of people who would have heard me if I stood on a soapbox in
the middle of a street! And the best part is I didn't have to leave my bed to
do it.

So we have all these people everywhere voicing their
thoughts, opinions, talent, lack of talent, idiocy you name it, as though to a
street full of people. I don’t know... what does this make us? Publicity hungry
micro celebrities? Socialites of our own little cyber world? Brand ambassadors
for our own self? Again, I can’t say if it’s a good a bad thing, but it’s a
thing, a thing that is creating a strange way in which we communicate with people
through social network.

I suppose what amazes me, when I think about it, is the ease
with which common masses now have the power to create and publicise their own brand of mass media,
be it via YouTube videos, blogs, facebook or twitter and the power anyone has
to create a tailor made identity to project a 'better than reality' self image without the awkward constraints of a personal face to face social interaction.

My worry is that it is turning people into rather
pretentious, self absorbed and probably fake individuals only concerned about
how many hits and likes they got on their latest posts. The only reason you’d
add or accept friend requests from ‘barely remember your face and name’ friend
is so you can have more people to promote your social agenda to and the acceptance
that the more active you are on a network, the more popular you become. I think
we need to admit to ourselves that, that is what we have become.

So what’s your social networking agenda?

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and maybe share it…